


Infinity

by kaige68



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bodyguard, Alternate Universe - Football, Case Fic, Homophobia, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-30
Updated: 2015-11-16
Packaged: 2018-04-24 03:49:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 18,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4904446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaige68/pseuds/kaige68
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny Williams is a wide receiver for the Portland Pacifics and someone is terrorizing him.  Five-0 security has been called in to keep Danny and his loved ones safe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Galadriel34](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Galadriel34/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Infinity/Endless Love](https://archiveofourown.org/works/744475) by [Galadriel34](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Galadriel34/pseuds/Galadriel34). 



> Over two years ago Galadriel34 posted a graphic that inspired me to write a fic. A long involved fic, that I have many times picked up and back burnered. But it is _finally_ at a point where I can start posting it. The fic is predominantly written and in varying stages of beta reading. I will do my very best to be regular about posting chapters until it is finished. At the moment it's looking to be 11 chapters.
> 
> So Gala, thank you so very very much for your infinite patience.
> 
> Thanks are also due to Haldoor, Tkeylasunset, and Asphaltcowgrrl for their read-throughs, their beta skills, their google skills, and their football knowledge. This is not to say that you won't find errors, I'm very stubborn even when people tell me what is wrong. Just saying that my gratitude to these three and the wonderful Galadriel34 knows no bounds!
> 
> This fic takes place in the world of the American NFL. The teams I mention are expansion teams that I made up. I am woefully ignorant of NFL rules, players, and plays. I apologize if my lack of knowledge has made something here wrong. I have also never been to Portland, OR, and I do think very highly of the place and it's people.
> 
> Fic is rated explicit for future sexual content. It is flagged with an archive warning of 'graphic depictions of violence', I would not say that the violence is all that graphic in it's description, but there are some violent scenes. There is some homophobia mentioned but not focused on.

It was clear they were moving. There were boxes stacked neatly in most of the downstairs rooms, some marked with charity names, others marked with room titles. There were piles of things: artwork, family photos, antiques and fine breakables that movers would presumably pack.

Spray paint flowed across various surfaces. Walls. Windows. The Louis XIV settee looked especially pleasing with a thick coating of the word ‘DIE’. 

Paintings that looked authentic and expensive were cut, slashed through, hopefully irreparably. The knife went through other furniture too. Shredding things, ruining things, destroying the peace the family thought they had.

There were more piles made during the visit. A vase and a baby portrait in front of the French doors. Antique silver filigree bowl by the picture window. A school trophy near the dining room breakfront. 

All of this had been done silently. As quietly as possible. The alarm and the code had been a joke. Access to the entire house was as easy as a birthday.

The predator moved up the stairs.

The vegetation in the back yard had been an excellent place to watch the family settle in. A pleasant dinner, with convivial laughter. An evening in front of the television; family shows followed by getting the small girl ready for bed, tucking her in with the _Good night, I love you_ ’s. The adults back downstairs with more television viewing that was abruptly turned off in favor of a more physical pastime behind closed doors. The lights had all been shut off for a few hours when the unauthorized entry to the house happened. 

More spray paint was applied on the trip up the stairs. ‘KILL THEM’ in block print on the landing. A slow thoughtful ‘X’ on the double doors to the master suite. Palming the knife, the black clad figure walked toward the girl’s room.

~*~*~

The shrill noise of the alarm ended the peaceful silence. Rachel and Stan both bolted up out of bed. They had a plan in place, and they executed it. Over the sound of the alarm there was glass breaking. Stan made for the alarm box, Rachel went for Grace, and if Grace followed their plan she would be crouched in her own room.

Stan had cautiously made the bottom of the stairs when Rachel’s scream rent the air. More glass broke further into the house on the first floor, and the phone in his hand rang. 

“We need help!” Stan shouted into the cell phone as he turned and bolted back up the stairs. Rachel’s scream hadn’t been from pain, or shock. The noise was deeper, and much more frightened. A sound Stan had never heard before but instantly recognized as fear for her child. “Someone’s in the house.” He yelled at the security company and dropped the phone as he reached Grace’s bedroom door.

The alarm was still waking the neighbors and Stan felt himself exhale a breath he hadn’t known he was holding as he watched Grace fly into her mother’s arms. He saw then, what had terrified his wife. A large red ‘X’ on the floor in front of the threshold to the smaller bedroom, while the door itself had a painted ‘WILLIAMS WILL PAY’ and a very ugly knife stuck in the wood.

~*~*~

Danny was out of his mind. He’d received an hysterical phone call from Stan that the home he and Rachel were leaving for Vegas had been broken into. He’d parked at the end of the driveway, waiting for a uniform to get permission to let him onto the property. Rachel had been sobbing in the background when he spoke to Stan. It was clearly not the typical break in.

A detective came down to escort him to the house. “Mr. Williams, I’m Detective Lukela. I’m going to need you to get me in touch with someone at the Pacifics’ office.”

“If you need tickets...” Danny was not the most popular player on Portland’s team at the moment, but the Pacs meant a lot to the people in town and Danny knew where his bread was buttered. 

The detective stopped Danny from continuing. “This looks like a threat against you. I’m going to need to find out about anything the team may have received as well.” 

Danny blanched, but didn’t hesitate to pull out his phone and dial Charlie. He handed the phone to the detective. “Charlie Fong. I’m not sure if he’s who you need, but he’ll get you to the right person if he’s not.” 

Lukela nodded and began speaking into the phone. Whatever he was saying to Charlie wasn’t sinking in to Danny’s brain. He interrupted silently with a questioning gesture toward the house and jogged to the front door when he received a nod.

When he reached the front door he was blocked by another uniform, he called out for Stan. Once he was motioned in he caught Rachel’s eye. She handed Grace to her current husband to begin yelling at her former one.

“This is your fault! Look what happened! You draw this to you!” Tears streamed down her face and she reached out a hand to strike Danny. “They came after her because of YOU!”

Stan handed Grace to Danny and pulled his wife against his chest.

“This is not my-“ Danny started to defend himself, but was cut off.

“Don’t you dare! Look at how afraid she is! This was because of you, Daniel! I hate this place! We cannot move away from you soon enough!” She pulled ineffectually at Stan’s hands.

“You did good, didn’t you, Monkey?” Danny smiled at his five year old and put his forehead against hers. “I bet you hid exactly where you were supposed to as soon as you heard the noise. And the alarm scared off the burglar man, didn’t it?”

“The alarm did not send him-“ Rachel started her tirade again, but was shushed by her husband who saw that Danny was trying to keep Grace from being afraid in her own home.

“We got behind the chair because it wasn’t the fire noise.” Her eyes were big and round. It was clear she had been crying, but he sincerely hoped that it was more a reaction to Rachel being upset than it was fear.

“You are so smart! Every day, you get smarter and smarter. “ Danny raised one brow in question. “You must get that from me.”

“From Mommy!” Then Grace giggled, and for the first time in an hour, Danny felt the panic recede.

~*~*~

They were being escorted to a hotel, where the police would keep a detail on the Edwards family. Danny had offered his home, but he was rebuffed with just an angry look. She had waited until Stan went with Grace to collect some clothes and then she started with the razor sharp tongue that Danny hadn’t missed at all.

The break-in was entirely his fault. Psychos were always his fault. The alarm being so shrill was his fault. She was thrilled they were moving away from him. She was thrilled they were living somewhere that he couldn’t manage to live full time due to his job. She was thrilled that he wouldn’t be as big of an influence on their daughter, and that a steady stable man was there to take his place.

Danny knew that a lot of it was the moment and the situation. But Rachel knew how to push his buttons; how to get him angrier and angrier. When she threatened to take Grace away for good, Detective Lukela stepped in between them and suggested she get ready for the hotel.

Danny had nothing but his daughter and his career. They were both looking to leave him.


	2. Chapter 2

Iowa was lonely. 

Danny had been in town for a few months, and he hadn’t really been able to fit in with the rest of the team at all. The Homesteaders were an expansion team, relatively new when they drafted Danny out of Rutgers, and they were not good. Their 3 years before Danny joined they were ranked second, first, and second again to the bottom of the NFL ladder.

But he’d been drafted, and he thought that was all there was to a beautiful pro-football career, at least until he was stuck in Des Moines with no friends or family. It was a nice town, but to Danny, who grew up with New York just down the street, it was only a town. The people were nice, polite, spoke much slower than Danny did, and they simply put up with him the few times that he flew into a rant about something.

He rented a small apartment and barely furnished it. Went to practice, then went back to his building. He worked out and watched basic cable. His on-again/off-again romances from college were solidly off. So that was it. Work, TV, and calling his parents every Wednesday night.

That was everything until he’d been accidentally on-purpose rear ended at a traffic light. Rachel was cute, and nice. She had an accent and was as out of place and alone as Danny was. It was instant and heavy, and most importantly, it worked for them. Danny was happier. Happier than he could recall being since his childhood when his biggest concern had been how to sneak twinkies into his mother’s supermarket cart.

Rachel didn’t make his playing with the Homesteaders any better. But it was better for Danny to have someone, to have a reason to come home. The two ‘good’ players in Iowa were their quarterback and his favored wide receiver. Danny was bottom pick in his position. He needed a QB and two WR’s on the injured list before he’d ever need to clean his game cleats.

By the end of his second year, he and Rachel were engaged, making plans, happy. The Homesteaders’ number 1 wide receiver was retiring, and Danny was playing second string. Finally. His name wasn’t known outside of Des Moines, but he didn’t feel like it mattered. Danny Williams was happy where he was in life.

~*~*~

Danny Williams’ trade from the Iowa Homesteaders to the Portland Pacifics was what initially made him famous. The trade was fast, unprompted, and cheap. There was a lot of speculation that Danny had been hurt, that he was sick, that he’d had a major argument with one of the owners, it was all ugly. One of the broadcasters for NCC’s sports show made a crack about how he’d been traded for a stale bag of potato chips and some odor eaters. Danny hated that dick.

Rachel hated Portland. She felt she had just found herself in Des Moines. She wasn’t exactly a big fish in a small pond, but she had friends, and a career, and the home they had bought at their 1st anniversary. In Portland, all Rachel had was Danny, and he didn’t seem to be enough for her.

They fought more. They fought a lot. They fought in front of his teammates on the first day of training.

But in Portland, football went well for Danny. Right after Rachel had driven off in her new expensive import and a huff, Danny had turned around to find two players laughing at him. That laughter had cemented what would become the best team in the NFL, at least in Danny’s opinion. Meka threw the ball, Danny caught it and ran while Kamekona kept the brutes at bay.

It was beautiful. They won games. And that dick from NCC had to eat his words. But the best, for Danny, was that he was finally _part_ of a team. _Ohana_ was what Meka kept calling it. Danny didn’t care if they called it blueberry pancakes. It was amazing! It got them to Divisional playoffs, then conference championship! Okay, sure, they lost the Superbowl, but nobody thought a year before that they would ever see a Super Bowl field.

Things got a little better with Rachel, she liked being a football wife for the next year. Then the crazies came out of the woodwork. Danny was offered endorsement deals, and more crazies knew his name. He and Rachel were finally expecting, and he couldn’t go into a grocery store. It was wonderful, weird, and wild all at once.

~*~*~

After Grace was born the Pacs won Division, but lost their conference. It was okay, Danny had a beautiful baby girl, and maybe he couldn’t win her a Super Bowl, but he would lay down his life for her. His team loved her. Hell, Portland loved her. And maybe that was what finally turned Rachel. Or maybe that was what showed Danny that what he and Rachel had wasn’t anywhere near as important.

If pressed, Danny could recall the moment he realized his marriage wasn’t going to make it. And it was well before he found out about Stan. He was sitting in front of his locker, looking forward to practice being over, looking forward to getting together with his team. Smiling about picking up his toddler, and heading out for an _Ohana_ afternoon at Meka and Amy’s home. Just him, Grace, and his favorite people. It hit him as he pocketed his keys, that his wife not going made things a little bit better.

Danny tried from there; he realized that his personal family was something he should try to save. However, the more he felt he tried, the more he found himself fighting with Rachel. Loud, silent, passive-aggressive, together they mastered all forms of marital dispute. And then Stan came along, and finally, finally, it was done.

~*~*~

Divorce lawyers interspersed with failed championship attempts. Rachel got the house, support, and most anything else she asked for, except sole custody. That was where it got ugly. The crazies didn’t help any there either. Fans impugning his soon-to-be-ex-wife only made the courts look more favorably on Rachel.

That Stan was a decent guy who clearly adored Grace didn’t help. That Rachel was a very good mother made Danny feel evil for not giving her everything she wanted. Danny Williams was high profile, he drew attention every time he pumped his own gas, and especially in a city that loved its football team. But the city loved its own down to earth sensibility even more; being the Pacs’ star Wide Receiver was a few strikes against him.

In the end, Danny got his daughter two days a week, and two weeks a year before training started, until she started school. Rachel got the caveat that she was allowed to take Grace to live anywhere in the country, and that broke Danny’s heart a bit, because it meant there were weeks when he wouldn’t have his two days.

~*~*~

Who knew that the crazies got even crazier when you spectacularly lost?

With his marriage finally over, Danny felt reasonably good again, and the team was out of its funk. They came back strong the year he turned 30. They made it to the big game again, and not as the pathetic underdogs. 

Danny fumbled. The Pacs lost their second Super Bowl. Portland hated him.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Five-0 arrives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, so very many thanks are due to Gala for her inspiration, as well as Haldoor, Tkeylasunset, and Asphaltcowgrrl. If I get anything right in this fic, it's because of them!

“Chin,” Steve called over to the man where he was loading a non-descript black SUV with the bags from the chartered plane. “I want you to head over and talk to a Detective Lukela, someone from the Pacs front office will drive you. Give him all of our paperwork, reciprocal licensing-”

“Not my first job, Steve.” Chin shook his head and grabbed the case he’d need. Kono didn’t even bother to pretend to cover her laugh. Chin ignored her. “Is he lead on the break-in?”

“Yeah, and he’s been good about keeping it out of the papers, according to Fong.” Steve pointed at the young man talking into his bluetooth earpiece. “We do have a couple of other things, though.” He pulled out his own bag and retrieved his gun. Steve loaded it, checked it over, and tucked it into a holster. He tucked a knife into a pocket in his cargos and watched until his team was similarly armed. “Williams doesn’t want us.”

“Great!” Kono rolled her eyes. “Nothing like a hostile protectee, eh?”

“He’s going along with it for the sake of his kid and the ex. They’ve got him over a barrel and they say he’ll behave.” Steve shrugged as if he was unsure, and didn’t give a damn either way if their client wanted them or not.

“So are we splitting up?” Chin hoisted a messenger bag onto his shoulder, hesitated before grabbing a bag with clothes.

“Yeah, the kid’s moving to Vegas in a couple of days, and the only way they can get Williams to co-operate is if the kid’s covered.”

Kono piped up. “And you don’t want to try and play nice with another team, so you’ll be separating us?”

“I’ll get you more people.” Steve patted her arm. “Catherine if I can call in a favor. If not, I’ll find someone.”

“We’ll get it done, Boss.”

Steve turned to Chin. “Be quick with Lukela; we’ll meet you back at the Pacs’ offices. _Daddy_ wants to be there to introduce us all to the kid.” His tone was derisive to say the least. “That is, if the ex lets him be there.”

“Do we get to go in the locker room?” Kono’s eyes went wide with her words.

“You have fun in Vegas, Cuz.” Chin laughed and trotted over to his driver.

“Like I’m the only one who’d enjoy the view.” She snorted. “We are going, right?”

Steve just laughed.

~*~*~

“Just do it, Brah. Suck it up.” Meka smiled, in that way he had that infuriated and supported Danny all at once. It was unfair.

“Says you.” Danny griped at him while he laced up. 

“Says me.” Meka was suddenly serious, hedging into Danny’s personal space. “You suck it up for Keiki. You suck it up for Ohana.”

Danny rubbed his hands over his face. “Haven’t I already sucked enough for Ohana?”

“Brudda, you gotta drop that.” Meka paused and then interrupted before Danny could make another self-deprecating comment. “Everyone here, this Ohana, has gotten over it. It’s a new year, man. Focus on the game, focus on Ohana, focus on Keiki.”

Danny looked up, insecurity written all over his face. 

“This is your year, bro.” 

That made Danny laugh.

Kamekona and Flipper started pushing on each other’s shoulders. Grunting, calling names, getting psyched. It was the signal to the team, the ohana, that it was time to feel amped and hit the field. Danny let the peace and energy wash over him.

***

They did drills, they did drills, and then they did more drills. Danny ran so much he felt at least 10 years younger. And that was the perk to him of practice over an actual game. While the glory came with the win, so did the injuries. Practice made him feel invincible. 

He looked around, took in what he saw beyond the Pacs’ players and coaching staff. There was more security, much more security. He supposed that some of the plain clothed security was the protection detail that he’d been told would be here, and that he had to shut up and take it. 

The head coach clicked his tongue, and Danny turned back to the field. “Two things, Williams,” was the only thing the coach had said to him. “This field, and the girl. Someone else will watch the rest.” It was the gruff support Danny had grown to appreciate from the man. And he felt oddly comforted that he hadn’t expected Danny to be comfortable leaving Grace’s safety to people he didn’t know.

So Danny ran drills, and ran drills, and ran drills.

***

The team showered, dressed, and a few of the offense met with a couple of coaches to go over some of the homework they’d been doing. They were still in the locker room talking when Charlie Fong came in with two strangers.

Coach got up, moved quickly to meet the men, then ushered everyone except Meka and Danny from the room. 

“So you’re my protection detail?” Danny rubbed his hands nervously on this thighs before he stood up. 

“We’re Five-O. I’m Steve McGarrett, this is Chin Ho Kelly.” Steve shook Meka’s hand and then moved toward Danny.

“Five oh?” Steve just nodded at Danny’s question. “Why five oh?”

“Because.” Tall dark and now pissy supplied.

“Because?” Danny hedged. Steve nodded again. ”What kind of answer is that?”

“It’s the answer you’re getting.”

Meka turned to Chin. “And that’s how you begin a beautiful friendship.” 

Chin laughed. Danny snorted.

Steve sighed, watching as Danny moved to his locker. “Do you have any questions for us?”

“I asked you a question, you answered with ‘because’; excuse me if I’m not seeing the value in asking you more questions.” He pulled his phone from the bag, checking for messages from Grace or Rachel; nothing. He’d been told, emphatically, not to call until they called him. He didn’t want to set his ex on edge any more than she already was (justified though it may be), he didn’t want her reaction scaring Grace anymore than she already was. “Do you have anyone on him?” Danny pointed at Meka.

Steve turned to Chin, letting him answer. “Police patrols have been stepped up in your neighborhood,” he told the quarterback. “Your home security company has been notified to call in any abnormalities. And we’re bringing in someone to sit on your house and family. Should be here by the morning.”

“No, man.” Meka put his hands up, gesturing at Danny. “You watch his back. Grace-”

“Babe!” Danny moved into Meka’s way. “If anything happens to your family, to your son… Just suck it up for the Ohana.”

Meka pulled him in tight and hugged Danny. “Amy’s not going to be happy.” Meka said when they pulled apart.

“Tell her Rachel has more security and is pissed.” Danny smiled. “That’ll make her smile.”

Meka left a couple of minutes later, laughing. Charlie followed him out.

“So, what else do I need to know?” 

“We have someone with your daughter, and we are bringing more people to sit on the Edwards’ house. They should be reporting within a few hours.” Chin supplied.

“We would have liked to have you all together under one roof but…” Steve let the sentence trail off.

“But we run a higher risk of Rachel taking me out if that happens. I get it.”

“We also would have liked to not have you coming in for practice.”

“It’s bad timing. The Pacs need to look good for the upcoming season, and if I’m not here for practice, the world is going to think the Pacs are looking to get rid of me. Then when everything is settled, and I show up on the field, it’s going to be ugly.”

“Yeah, your organization didn’t give us a lot of choice.” To Danny, it looked like Steve was more pissed about not getting his way than anything else. “Give me your car keys, I’m going to check it out.”

Danny fished them out. Steve pulled off the car fob and gave back everything else, then left the room without saying anything else.

“I don’t get to drive my car again until this is over, do I?” He asked Chin.

“No, and worse,” Chin smiled. “I’m driving you back in our rental. Steve’s taking your mid-life crisis over to the Edwards’. Wait till you see him drive.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes the chapter length gets away from me.
> 
> And again, excessive thanks to Gala, Haldoor, Tkeyla, and Asphaltcowgrrl!

“This is not what I was expecting,” Steve told Chin as he was let into Danny’s house. 

“What were you expecting?” Danny snarked from the kitchen where he was finishing up cleaning the dishes he’d used at breakfast.

“Your wife’s house.” Steve dropped the two duffel bags he carried with him on a sectional sofa and took in the home. He could see the entirety of the first floor from where he stood. One open living room, dining area, kitchen, with a small sitting area on what looked to be a converted porch. 

Everywhere there were shelves there were books: hard covers, paperbacks, trades; all mixed together in the TV stand, end tables, a bookcase niche tucked under the stairs. The furniture looked like it came out of a mass-market catalog, but it looked comfortable; a place where a single dad could live with just his daughter. Despite the amount of windows, the place had a cozy warm feeling. “There are too many windows.”

“That’s what he said.” Danny pointed at Chin. “But I’m not boarding them up, so screw you.”

“You know, Pal? We’re here to help. Keep you safe, keep your daughter safe, catch the guy who’s doing this. You could show a little more gratitude.”

“OH! Am I not being gracious enough to the man who is invading my life and telling me I have too many windows. Well then, please, let me correct that! Thank you, for not letting me drive my own car, or go to the bathroom alone, or-”

“Hey! I didn’t do this to you. The sooner we make sure that you cannot be touched, the sooner-”

“The sooner some psycho goes after someone else I care about!” Danny pulled out a chair and sank down at the dining table.

Chin finally spoke up. “Two bedrooms upstairs, a home office, more windows, and there’s a laundry room through there.” He pointed to the far end of the kitchen. “He’s got a good alarm system; battery back-up with a default to notify security if the power goes out.”

Steve nodded at the wooded view across from the front door. “That private?”

Danny piped in without looking up. “Conservation land, state owned. No hunting, but no patrols. I do have neighbors on both sides who call the cops every time they see someone with a rifle. The place on the left breeds dogs, they all go off at the slightest thing.”

“That should be helpful.” Steve pulled a chair out across from Danny, flipped it around and sat. “We don’t meet anyone on their best day. And I know I cannot imagine what you’re going through having seen the mess at your wife’s hou-”

“EX. My ex-wife’s house.”

“Your ex-wife’s house,” Steve acquiesced. “I’d be scared and angry too.”

“They’re not coming after me. I can protect me. Within reason.” Danny sighed, ran a hand through his hair.

“They’re coming after the things that mean the most to you.” Chin sat so as to see the part of the room at Steve’s back. “He wants to ruin you; take you down mentally.”

“If he wanted to kill me, I’d be dead?” Danny tilted his head and caught Chin’s eye.

“If he wanted to kill you, he’d have gone after you. He wants to crush you,” Steve said.

“So he’s going after Grace.” The security professionals nodded at Danny’s words. “Did the front office come up with anyone viable for making threats?”

“Nothing yet. The FBI is going through all of that; it may take them some time. There are a surprising number of people who don’t like you.” Steve’s comment made Chin laugh.

“Yeah, well, you fumble like I did, blow a team’s Super Bowl hopes, and see if the fans all love you after.”

“Is that why the Homesteaders traded you? Bad hands? And for a-”

“Don’t say it.” Danny sat up and pointed at Steve. Chin hid his smirk behind a cough. “Don’t say it.”

“I just wondered why you got traded; they never said.”

“Well, they never told me either. Said something about morality, but they wouldn’t say more and I had to get my ass to Portland to play.” Danny’s hand began tapping on the table as he tried not to make a fist.

“Morality? You get caught with prostitutes, a mistress? Drugs?” Steve began hedging.

“No. Nothing. My marriage was still working back then, and I’m not that guy.”

“Nothing performance enhancing?”

Danny rolled his eyes. “Are you kidding me?”

“We’ll take that as a no,” Chin chimed in.

The cell phone in the middle of the table began to ring. Danny grabbed it; checked caller ID. “Great, it’s Rachel’s lawyer.” 

Steve and Chin both got up and moved to the other end of the open room to leave Danny with some space.

****

He blinked, dumbfounded, and dropped his face into his hands. He felt like he’d gone three long rounds with a pugilist, and lost by TKO. Like he was flat out on the mat, gasping for breath. Grasping for rational thought.

She was taking his daughter. Grace was heading to Nevada, and Danny could have limited, supervised visitation, _if_ he traveled to Las Vegas.

Danny pushed his phone across the table, slowly. The deliberate act was the only thing keeping him from either crushing the phone in his hand or hurling it across the room. He wanted to call his lawyer back and demand better representation. He wanted to call Rachel and scream. He wanted, desperately wanted, to wake up from the nightmare.

Down for the count and the son of a bitch who’d been terrorizing him and the people he cared about just wouldn’t stop throwing punches. “Find him.” He told Steve, the sound muffled by his hands.

A hand settled on Danny’s shoulder. No words, no commiseration. Just a small comfort, and a promise.

****

Steve did a full walk through of the house. Checked the windows upstairs, climbed out over a balcony rail and crawled his way up the roof and gables to see if anyone had been there recently and what advantage might be found up there.

Danny had ranted at the person on the phone. Steve knew it would get him nowhere. He was not kidding when he said that he didn’t meet people on their best day, and this football player was a prime example. The guy was in the dumps over his divorce and the custody he was stuck with before last season ended. Then the fumble and the whole Pacific Northwest had it in for him. And now someone was running around terrifying the man’s daughter, and torturing Danny. Not nearly meeting the man at his best. 

This was one case that Steve wanted to solve. Up there with the drive that he’d felt in chasing down his father’s killer. He’d gotten Wo-Fat; now he needed to find the man who was scaring a five year old girl to cripple her father. 

He climbed back down and into Danny’s bedroom. And it struck Steve again that it wasn’t glamourous. It was down to earth, comfortable. The kind of place Steve would have for himself if he lived there. He walked to the master bath and poked through the cabinets. Aside from an abundance of hair care products, it looked like a single guy’s bathroom. No drugs except a prescription strength ibuprofen and some over the counter Tylenol. There was a children’s aspirin and a bottle of cough syrup. The soaking tub had epsom salts and some squeeze tube of bubble bath with a pink cartoon character on it. 

Steve sat on the uncomfortable couch in the ‘office’. There was a small secretary on the side with a laptop and some utility bills. But the bulk of the small room was a TV and the couch. The cabinet under the TV held burned discs marked with team names and dates. There were even VHS tapes and a tape player. He thumbed through a notebook that looked like it lived on the couch. It was filled with small, neat hand-written notes about specific games, specific teams and some insights that might have Steve betting differently on the Pacs’ season opener.

Steve made his way downstairs. The sun was starting to set, making the woods behind the house look even darker. He grabbed his jacket and headed for the French doors. “I’m going to walk around a bit. Scout before it gets too dark.”

Chin just nodded from the comfy chair where he was on the phone. Danny was still staring at the table with his phone out of reach; he didn’t even acknowledge Steve’s words.

It was going to feel like a very long job no matter how long it took. Steve stepped outside and closed the door behind him. His team was going to catch his guy, scumbag, jackass, no matter what.

****

Sometimes, the right amount of alcohol - just the right amount of alcohol, _just_ the right amount - would make Danny lethargic.

One of those small old fashioned glasses; one of the ones his aunt gave them for their wedding; the ones that were gaudy and heavy; the ones that Rachel hated. Both he and his aunt liked them all the more for that since the divorce.

Two ice cubes and just enough of the really good scotch to float them. The kind of scotch that you save to be savored. Two ice cubes and the really good scotch, sipped slowly, and Danny could feel his shoulders ease.

There was a tingle on his tongue, a burn in his throat, and a melting of tense, stressed muscles. It helped.

He didn’t drink every night, and not more than one pour. He wasn’t looking to forget, to become maudlin, or to become drunk.

Just… lethargic felt good, now and then. It felt like a good moment to feel lethargic.

****

Steve walked back into the house after making enough noise on approaching that Chin would know it was him. The sun had completely disappeared from the sky, but the woods made sense to Steve. There were a few paths, and there was a small ravine about a half mile out that would be good for hiding if they needed it. 

Chin was sitting at the kitchen table with his laptop out and on the phone with Kono if his smile and tone were any indicator. Danny was in the little sitting room off to the side. It was just windows, two chairs, and more books. He had a drink in his hand and a slump to his shoulders.

Steve hung up his coat and leaned against the doorway facing their protectee. “He get anywhere?”

“The feds still have nothing. The Pacs have nothing. Rachel refuses to let me speak to Grace, even on the phone, and you were apparently very correct: a lot of people don’t like me.” Danny raised the glass in mock salute and took a small sip.

“That the good stuff?” Steve asked, and Danny simply nodded. “Your first glass?” Danny nodded again, leaving Steve with the impression that the man wouldn’t be getting drunk.

Chin tapped Steve on the shoulder and walked by him into the ‘library’. He held out his cell phone to Danny. “Kono is watching _Finding Nemo_ with Grace while your ex is having dinner with Stan. She thought you might want to say goodnight.”

Danny took the phone with a smile. For the second time that evening both Chin and Steve moved to leave the man with some semblance of privacy. 

****

Chin took the first shift of sleep, ensconced in the purple and pink room. He would relieve Steve in 6 or so hours.

“I don’t know.” Danny shrugged. “I think we were both lonely and out of place in the same city at the same time.”

Steve eyed the woods surrounding the home for a minute. “Was she the sort that you would have gone for back in Jersey?” He didn’t meet Danny’s eyes, kept up a vigilant-looking surveillance.

“Probably.” Danny acknowledged. “Rachel was way out of my league. Back home I would have followed her around like a puppy too. Maybe she wouldn’t have noticed me.”

“But the big time football star got noticed.” There was mockery in that voice.

Danny barked a laugh. “I was a nobody. Even diehard Homesteader fans in Des Moines didn’t know my name. Not until I got traded to the Pacs.”

Steve’s smile was visible in the window reflection. “For a stale bag of potato chips, right?”

“And some Odor Eaters.” He sounded defensive, he knew. But really, he hated the has-been sportscaster who said that. “But I think I asked you not to say that.”

“You did. I don’t usually listen.” Steve smiled, in a scary sort of way. “Chin’s going to keep digging, see what he can find for rumors. It will be helpful if you can be as honest with us as possible. If he finds something you can say that it’s true or not.”

“I don’t do drugs, I never cheated on my wife. There was one woman that I kissed at an away game because she thought I was some actor, and even that was on the cheek.” He sighed and sank further into the sofa. “The Pacs’ office doesn’t even know why I was traded. They just needed someone in my position; I was young enough and cheap enough so they snapped me up when Iowa offered.” Danny turned and looked Steve in the eye. “You think this is connected to an ancient trade deal.”

“My gut tells me there’s something up with your trade, and-”

“Your gut?”

“Are you making fun of me?”

“Yes, you and your gut.”

Steve tried to give him _the look_ but failed. “It’s … fishy. I don’t like fishy things when I’m on the job. Charlie is trying to get letters that Iowa might still have that threatened you.”

“I think my folks might be the only ones who knew I was on the team. I don’t see them writing nasty letters to the good people at the Homesteaders making threats about me.”

“I’ll have Chin check them out anyway.” They both smiled, then Steve went back to his questioning. “Anyone since you and Rachel split?”

Danny sighed. He hated being grilled about his personal life. There was a local sports radio program that was alway asking things that Danny wasn’t comfortable answering. Steve’s questions didn’t feel much different, but if it would help Grace… “Nothing significant. I’ve never been good at one night stands. But I tried a few when I was first back on my own. I don’t think they knew me. One in Boston, one here in Portland, one in Jacksonville. I definitely don’t know their names, and they were all gone of their own accord before I woke up. Portland might have been Shelley or Sherry.” Danny shrugged again. It didn’t speak well of him. “There were two women that I dated a handful of times each here. Gabby got a great job opportunity in Colorado. Michelle and I knew it was nothing before we ever slept together.” 

“That’s it?” 

“Well, Meka has some cousin that he wants to set me up with, but I’ve met his family, and I’ve had enough crazy in my life.”

Steve laughed. “I understand that completely, man.” He paused for a moment. “What about before, in New Jersey? Anyone serious there?”

“College was… college. There were the one-offs that proved I wasn’t good at them. There was one on-again off-again for a couple of years, but that ended amicably. And there was one serious girl for most of my sophomore year, but after a spectacularly memorable three-way Charlene decided that she was more into girls than guys.” 

“Ouch, that’s rough.”

“Not so bad. Like I said, _particularly memorable_. And that is something that I’m telling you in strictest confidence. I never even told Rachel when we had our fantasy discussion.”

Steve actually laughed. “Got it.”

“So yeah, that’s it. I can count the people I’ve slept with.” Professional athletes were expected to be unable to count their conquests. Danny had meant it when he said he’d never been that guy. “Not much of a player, huh?”

Steve smiled in a way that made Danny’s stomach flip a little. “Nothing wrong with that. Nothing at all.”


	5. Chapter 5

It had been two brutally long days. Danny hadn’t gotten much sleep; he felt like he’d been awake every time Steve or Chin had done a ‘circuit’ by his bedroom door. He hadn’t seen Grace and hadn’t been allowed to talk to her except for a brief ‘good night’ while Kono was with her and Rachel was out of the room. His heart hurt with missing her, and he found himself sleeping even less. His lack of sleep showed in his performance on the field.

But his team was there for him. Each of them living through more rigorous security at work, and concerned family with increased police presence at their homes. They were behind him 100%. It hurt his heart a little more that he was causing them this much distress and that they didn’t flinch or bitch. It felt oddly safe in the midst of the terror.

The Five-0 team had him feeling safer as well, strangely enough. He only had Steve and Chin as his constant shadows. They fell into a bizarre living pattern that never felt too uncomfortable. Kono had a small team helping her with Grace, Rachel, and Stan. He hadn’t met the woman, but he appreciated that Kono never left his daughter’s side. 

After the third time Coach had blown up at him for not paying attention, Danny was pulled away to discuss the tapes he’d gone through the previous night looking for chinks in the Homesteader’s defense. Coach seemed to recognize that if his mouth was engaged, then so was his mind. And again, Danny was comforted by the concessions made by the people around him at a time that he needed it most.

Practice was winding down for the day when Danny noticed Steve walking toward him with a smile on his face. “Okay, that’s not a disconcerting smile at all.” Danny turned fully toward his bodyguard.

“I have good news.” Before he could be asked, Steve raised his hands to deflect. “Not the greatest of news, but… Rachel has agreed to let Grace come for the end of practice. Kono’s pulling into the parking lot now.”

Danny wanted to run for the entrance, but Steve stopped him with a hand on his arm. “Keep it calm; just another _normal_ day of you being at your wit’s end with the situation. Don’t go running out there and distracting your security.”

“You’ve been watching me like a hawk; you’re not distractible.”

“You’d be surprised. But I meant the field security. I don’t want them watching you when they should be watching for other people.”

Danny nodded. Excited, but understanding, and he turned to watch the entrance to the field from the locker room.

Several minutes later his sweet little monkey came walking onto the field. The woman Danny presumed to be Kono was holding her hand and not letting the child run. 

“Danno!” Grace yelled and tugged more at her minder’s arm.

Danny grinned ear to ear and started walking; felt the whole team turn toward his daughter; felt supported, cared for, at home. The sun caught Danny’s eyes. It was strange, it should have been behind him but…

A shot rang out. He felt like he was standing still _and_ moving toward his daughter. He heard her scream “Daddy!” at the top of her precious little lungs, and then he felt himself tackled to the grass.

Danny struggled under the weight. Then he felt more weight hit him; there was an _oomph_ of air leaving the body on top of him with the additional tackle. Danny still tried to pull free. 

All he could see was the part of the field that had been behind him. He tried to turn toward where Grace had been. Tried desperately.

“Stay down!” Steve’s hand pushed at the back of his head when he spoke. “Kono?” Danny knew the question was addressed to the comms the Five-0 team were wearing. “She’s fine, Danny. Grace is worried about you. She’s not hurt.”

Danny felt the fight go out of him. He whispered a thank you to whoever might be listening and had spared his daughter.

“Chin?” Steve asked his team. “What have you got?”

It could have been a minute or an hour since the shot sounded. Danny didn’t know; too overrun with tension and relief all at once. People were starting to move, and Danny finally registered that there had only been the one shot.

“Damn it!” Steve cursed at Chin from behind Danny. “Find the son of a bitch! I want him now!”

From somewhere out of Danny’s range of vision came a yell. “Get the ambo in here, now!” 

Danny tensed again, struggled again. 

“It’s your place kicker,” Steve relayed. “Through and through, right shoulder.”

It shouldn’t make Danny feel better that Toast had been shot, but Danny recognized that it did.

“Sniper’s gone,” Steve announced. “You can get off me now, man.”

Danny felt some of the pressure lift from his body and heard Kamekona tell the Steve, “It was my job to protect him before it was yours, Bruddah.”

Steve smiled, and Kame helped pull Danny to his feet. Once Danny was mobile again he was running toward Grace. Steve was hot on his heels.

“Grace!” And then his arms were full again. Danny just held her tight, breathed in her hair, and fought his tears.

Behind him the situation kept going.

“How did he get in? How did he get out?” Steve was yelling into the wireless system at someone. “This place should have been locked down before the rifle was fired!”

And then a small voice in Danny’s ear. “Is Toast okay?”

Danny turned toward where the man was being prodded by quick EMTs. The kid smiled at Danny and gave him a thumbs up. “I didn’t get shot in the leg, man. I can still kick. This is our year!”

“Yeah, Gracey. Toast is going to be okay.” Danny smiled slightly as the kicker was placed in the truck. He looked around a bit and realized that Toast would have only been ten to fifteen feet away from Grace when the shot fired. He turned to Steve, and then to where the light had flashed from that hit his eyes. “Do you think he was that good, or that bad.”

Kono was staring in the same direction as well, keeping herself in front of Grace. “I’d say _That good_.”

Danny turned to Charlie Fong as soon as he made the field. “I want them on the private jet as soon as it’s gassed and out of here.” Charlie just nodded and pulled out his phone.

 

****

“No, Rachel! Get on the plane. You’ve got everything you need for right now with you at the hotel. Your movers are scheduled anyway…. NO! You stop and listen to me. Nothing matters more than her safety, you know that. She’s on her way to you now. They are upping security; she has a police escort. I don’t care if you tell the pilot to fly somewhere else and don’t tell me where until this is over. I want her out of here now!”

Steve listened to Danny arguing with his ex from outside of the coach’s office. It wasn’t that different from the other arguments he’d overheard since he arrived in Portland, except that this time, Danny was telling her to go away from him. Steve felt horrible. Felt the drive to finish this case hit him even harder. They should have seen the guy; they should have never let him get that close; they should have never let him get away; they should have…

The place kicker was going to be okay; he was in surgery and they had been told that it looked simple enough. Just a little physical therapy rehab after he healed.

The security guard who’d been hit from behind was in ICU. Blunt force trauma to the skull and they wouldn’t know anything until tomorrow morning when he woke up. _If he woke up._

Chin had found the casing from the rifle. The Portland crime scene techs had bagged it up and were combing over the rest of the site. Steve ran the event through his mind again and again. He agreed with Kono that it had probably been a good shot rather than a bad one. Something to terrify Danny more than to hurt Grace.

And maybe it had been meant to make the team turn on him. It wouldn’t be the first time Steve had seen it. But looking around the locker room, the shooting had the opposite effect. The players were rallying. Toast’s parents had been notified; a couple of the special teams guys were picking them up at the airport. They were making plans to sit vigil at the hospital for both of the injured men. They were supportive of Danny, and they were pissed as hell.

Danny nudged at Steve to get out of Coach’s office. Meka noticed his friend’s arrival; watched Danny walk toward his locker, then announced, “You don’t go to the hospital.”

“Of course I’m going. They were hurt because-”

“They were hurt to hurt you!” Meka got in his face. “Whoever this is, he’s playing to you as an audience. He probably sat up there waiting until he could scare you the most. He didn’t even know Keiki was coming. You go to the hospital, he pulls another stunt, hurts someone else, how’re you gonna feel?”

Danny took a deep breath, clearly ready to get right back into Meka’s face, but the quarterback didn’t let him.

“You’re ready to walk into traffic and end this right now. Go home with the guys who carry the guns who can keep you safe.” He put both hands on Danny’s shoulders. “We’ll call with every update. We’ll tell Roger’s wife that we forced you to stay away. And we all come back here on Monday, after your boys and the cops catch this guy, and we play like the team that we are.”

Danny pulled Meka into a hug, and then there were football players hugging until the circle was crushing the wide receiver in support.

Steve watched them all get changed and head out in groups as Danny lagged behind, lost in what he saw as his own guilt. With that many of them hanging out at the hospital, with the way the Police had swarmed the stadium and with everything that had happened, Steve just hoped that they could still keep it out of the press.

****

The story hit the press.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to EVERYONE who has been reading and commenting. It means a great deal! I'm thrilled this is being read like it is!
> 
> :)

The press was ugly. Danny’s land-line phone rang constantly until Steve ripped it from the wall. “And you think I’m hot tempered?” Danny said but went about cooking for the three of them without another comment. He was, however, glad that the ringing had stopped.

And then, somehow, his cell phone number had been leaked. While Danny appreciated that some reporters wanted to get an accurate story, he still wasn’t talking to anybody about it. He’d handed the phone to Chin, to save it from the land line’s fate, and heard something like _can neither confirm nor deny_. Danny turned up the Bon Jovi on the player.

The press was running with a moderately to reasonably accurate sniper story. And while they didn’t know that Danny was the target of the aggression, they did know that Grace was on the field, which seemed to make it okay with the public that he wasn’t at the hospital.

The Edwards’ entourage had landed in Nevada. Kono had checked in with Steve. Rachel was not allowing Danny any contact again. It hurt, but not as much as the fear he’d felt out on the field. 

Chin started declining all calls without an ID on Danny’s phone that he didn’t recognize. Danny had expected that earlier. Then he asked for Danny’s password and logged in online to start scanning and deleting voicemails.

The police were out front, holding off a small contingent of news vans. Danny knew that by morning it would be fewer camera trucks and more paparazzi. Knew things would only get worse, especially when Steve was pacing the living room like a caged tiger.

Two men came out of the woods. Making noise, setting off the neighbors dogs. Steve met them on the deck. It was a quiet conversation that Danny couldn’t hear, with a lot of hand signals that looked more tactical military than Danny’s own wild gestures. Both men moved back to the woods and Steve poked his head in for a moment.

“I’m going to let your neighbors know they’re out there; be right back.” And Steve was gone.

“The taller one worked with Steve when he was a SEAL, the other one he knows from the Navy as well.” Chin supplied, one ear listening for Danny, the other with an earplug running to the laptop.

“I figured he was some kind of military. Do the cops know they’re out there?”

“Notified before they arrived.” Chin smiled slightly at Danny. “We like to work _with_ rather than against the local PD.”

“Because you were a cop?” Danny moved a plate of meatloaf and a bowl of green beans on the table.

Chin’s smiled got wider, whether at the food or the question Danny wasn’t sure. “How’d you know?” The man pushed the laptop to the side, and hit the decline button when Danny’s phone vibrated again.

“Studied criminology in school. Didn’t ever think that football would be a career; wanted to be a cop. You have a lot of mannerisms of some of the cops I met.” Baked potatoes and three bottles of water were placed on the table, then Danny turned back for plates and silverware.

“You would’ve made a good cop. You seem to have good instincts.” He started to serve himself some of the dinner when there was a commotion out front. Chin pointed Danny to the corner of the kitchen near the laundry room door, and headed for the windows on the stairs that would give him a good vantage point. 

Danny kept his eyes glued to the back windows. It wasn’t something he’d been trained for, or told to do. It just made sense to him.

“Someone got by the police line. They dragged him off.” Chin walked back to the table in a much calmer manner than he’d left it. By the time Danny had sat down, Steve was back.

“Those are some loud dogs.” Steve pointed out after settling in but before he took a forkful of meatloaf into his mouth. 

“It’s one of the reasons the people I bought the place from were desperate to sell.” Danny smiled, eyes still glued to the back windows. “I miss having a dog. I’m not home consistently enough for one, but Ted lets Grace and I walk them when we’re both home. She plays with the puppies sometimes.”

“Oh my god!” Steve said with a mouth full of food, or that’s what Danny thought he said. “Did you put cheese in this? This is amazing.”

“And the salt on the baked potato.” Chin chimed in.

Danny just sighed. “Do you both think the distractions will work?”

“It will make the weekend pass quicker.” 

 

****

 

The weekend was hellishly long. Toast called a few times; Meka called a few times. Kono checked in with updates on Grace, but Danny still couldn’t speak to her.

Roger, the security guard, was still in ICU, but had regained consciousness and would heal. He might never be fully what he was before, and Danny felt further waves of guilt when he thought about it.

Steve kept pushing that they hole up in a hotel. He looked at the windows with an excessive amount of hate. The paparazzi seemed to hedge in even closer with every passing hour. A hotel would be better ‘defended’; less of a chance of a neighbor or a police officer getting hurt. 

That last point almost had Danny; he couldn’t be responsible for any more people getting hurt. But then a neighbor texted in with a _Haha. Just got two of em arrested for trespassing. This is fun!_

While the television newscasters kept saying that there was no new information on the shooter at the stadium, and that the police and the Pacs’ security team were still looking for the guy, the trash talking sports radio jocks and web trash slingers were having a field day.

_This might not be a case of a crazed gunman taking pot shots. It could be a disgruntled fan doing his best to make the team better._

_I think you’re wrong about that Kyle. The Pacs have excellent special teams. I think they would have gone after Williams if they were trying to do Portland a favor._

_True! Very true. Let me just say that it shouldn’t have happened, and that Williams’ daughter was on the field is scary. But maybe Williams will take the hint and-_

Danny had snapped the radio off and gone upstairs to soak in the tub.

 

****

 

By Monday, Danny was desperate to get back to the field. The team was happy to see him, and he got filled in on a number of jokes and stories that had happened while everyone was in the hospital waiting room.

Meka even told Danny about how Amy had called Rachel. “Man, every time Amy talks to her, she just hates her more and more. She made you cookies.” Meka handed over the bag, and Danny smiled at the patented _I’m sorry you were ever married to that bitch, and I’m so thrilled you aren’t anymore_ cookies.

“Look, man. I’m sorry, I…” Danny’s speech petered out. He wasn’t sure how to apologize to the man - to the team, to their families - for putting them all in danger; for making them all live with people watching over them; for making them all live with… this.

“Danno,” Meka’s tone was soothing, like he sounded when his son had gotten a scrape or bruise. “You didn’t ask for this. Nobody who knows you blames you; nobody who blames you matters.”

Danny thought that Rachel certainly seemed to both blame and matter, but he took Meka’s words as they were meant, and was comforted. He was about to say more, but Kamekona and Flipper started pushing each other around, psyching up for the field. There would be news cameras filming practice, there would be heavier security, there would be a lot more going on once they left the locker room than there had been ever before, but suddenly, Danny felt lighter and ready to hit the field like it was a championship game.

 

****

The week of practice was heaven; the team worked like a well oiled machine. They were the Ohana that Meka had been working them toward since Danny could remember. They were all there for each other; helping, critiquing, pushing. 

The media trash talk had stopped. Danny’s stalker had afforded Portland an unprecedented look at their practices and what the public saw let them forgive all past transgressions, let them swell with pride and fannish hope.

One week since the sniper incident found Toast on the field. He was in street clothes, but he was there with the team, and the feeling of possibilities grew. 

Roger was out of ICU and out of the woods, and again, the team - the organization - felt like it was shimmering with optimism. The week had been nothing but good.

Which was why Danny’s first thought, when the pain hit him, was _of course_.

They were heading in, practice was over, the week was done. Kame was bragging about how they could play offense as well as defense. He threw the ball to Flipper as they walked toward the locker room. Flipper ran, jumped, caught the ball. He landed awkwardly, bumping into Danny, both of them going down. Danny’s leg at a bad angle, the linebacker on top of Danny’s knee.

 

****

“FOUR WEEKS!” Danny yelled at Steve once they were in the comfort of Danny’s home. “FOUR WEEKS!”

“Yeah, I actually caught that when the doctor said it. And when you told me on the way to the car, and the forty-seven times you told me in the car.” Steve skirted around Danny and his crutches to drop the bags on a chair. He shook his head at Chin in mock exasperation.

Chin just stood up with a smirk and headed out to do a perimeter sweep. In the short time the two men had been staying in Danny’s home, Danny and Steve had raised arguing to an art form. Chin mentioned to Steve that is sounded like foreplay from time to time. Steve had just glared.

“I don’t think that you understand the gravity of this situation, Steven.”

“I think I do, Daniel. I think that this makes for-” Steve’s phone chimed with a text message, and Steve smiled a scary smile when he read it. “I think this is perfect timing.”

“Perfect timing for what?” Danny hobbled across the room as if he were pacing back and forth with the crutches. “We were looking so good out there! Did you not notice how good we looked?”

“Oh, I noticed.” And again, Steve sported the scary smile. “You looked great in your uniform. You’ve got a great ass. Probably the best in the Western Division.”

Danny sputtered. He dropped his crutches and just leaned against the counter. “That is not what I meant, and not information I needed to have. What the hell is WRONG WITH YOU?”

“You asked.” Steve shrugged.

It was quiet for a moment. Danny wouldn’t look up; just stood in the kitchen pinching the bridge of his nose. It wasn’t the first time someone had said those words to him; it wasn’t the first time a guy had said them. Danny didn’t want to be thinking that his bodyguard was thinking about his ass, because that only made him think about Steve’s arms and…

“What was the text you just got that made you smile with such terrifying glee?” Danny spoke slowly, quietly, as though his sanity depended on Steve’s answer. Maybe it did.

Steve was at the back door calling to Chin. “We got the go ahead. I’m going upstairs to get ready, you handle the equipment.” 

That made Danny look up, finally. “You got the go ahead for what?”

“We’re heading out. You can’t practice. Four weeks.” Again, Steve’s grin was scary. “So we’ve got the go ahead to take you away.”

“Vegas?” Danny hoped.

“No; safer if you don’t. Undisclosed location.” Steve headed up the stairs. “Anything you specifically want me to pack for you?”

“I don’t want to go, and I can pack myself, damn it.” He reached for his crutches.

“Aren’t you supposed to stay off your feet?” Chin said calmly, closing the door and heading for his bags.

“I’m packing,” Steve called back down, and Danny could hear the drawers of his dresser opening and closing. “Where are your swim trunks?”

“Undisclosed location?” Danny called up, challenging.

“It’s need to know, and you don’t,” The voice supplied from his bedroom. “Where are your board shorts?”

“Undisclosed location.” Danny humphed and set himself down sullenly at the table.

Chin just laughed.


	7. Chapter 7

An hour and a half later, Danny found himself sitting on a private jet. Comfy chair, leg up, and a steward offering him a drink. There had apparently been a ticket purchased for him to vacation in Miami. The team plane was on it’s way to LA with a manifest that said he was on it. And a friend of a friend of Denning, the team’s owner, had loaned the plane he was sitting on to them for travel to McGarrett’s _undisclosed location._

Danny was ticked, but he got it. People should be safer if it looked like he wasn’t there to witness his terrorizer’s plans. _Should be_. There was still a very good chance that whoever was doing it would get pissed that Danny wasn’t a captive audience and lash out anyway. But, as much as Danny didn’t want to cave - to give in to some crazy person’s pressure - if it kept people safer - if it kept Grace safe - then he’d follow Steve to the undisclosed location without blinking an eye.

He asked for some water and settled in.

Five minutes later he heard a commotion coming up the plane’s stairs. Chin and Steve were arguing. Danny couldn’t hear Chin, but Steve was loud and clear and pissed. And a minute later Steve came storming into the cabin.

“You lied to me!” It wasn’t a question, but the force of the accusation made Danny want to flinch.

“About what?” Danny didn’t think he’d lied to the man. Sure he hadn’t told him every minute detail of his life, but he hadn’t omitted anything he thought was important.

“You’re gay!” Steve was waving a fistful of papers. “And don’t give me a line about how you just omitted that information. I needed to know everything and you lied!”

To say he was floored was an understatement. There was a thin layer on the top of it that was shock of how Steve _You have a great ass_ McGarrett was acting like being gay was the reason he should be drawn and quartered. But the bigger part…. Danny had been so careful. It was the NFL. Sure there were a couple of players that were out, and there were some players that were out to their teams if not to the public, but it still hurt a career - wrong as it may be - it would still damage his future. So Danny wasn’t…. “I’m not gay.”

Steve stood from where he had been leaning over Danny in his most menacing pose. “What?” Like he was shocked that Danny would deny it.

“I’m not-”

“Did you have sex with a man?”

“Yes.” Danny drew his arms across his chest and pushed back into the comfort of the chair. Body language all _Fuck you, McGarrett._

Chin pressed a hand into Steve’s back and the man seemed to deflate a bit. “You’re bi?”

Danny nodded.

“Does your wife know?” Steve kept up the interrogation.

“EX wife. And yes, she knew before I ever proposed.”

“But you didn’t think _**I**_ needed to know?”

“Excuse me.” Danny’s arms uncrossed and he began to gesture widely. “How is this any of your business? You asked me about exes. I told you the truth. Does it make that big of a difference that two of them were guys?”

Steve seemed to lose all of his steam, and he sat down across from Danny. “It may now. Write down their names and anything else you can remember about them. Chin will run them.” 

Chin dropped a pad and pen on the table between the two other men. 

As Danny began writing he asked. “You gonna tell me where this came from? How the topic of my exes’ genders became an issue?”

Steve dropped the pages in his hand to the tabletop. “Press release from the Homesteaders. Someone talked to a paper in Iowa. Unnamed source. That you were traded because they found out about you having been involved with a man. The Homesteaders released a statement thirty minutes ago that they received information that you had sexual relations with male prostitutes while you were under contract with them. And-”

“And that would violate the morality clause in my contract and that’s why they traded me.” Danny got it. Danny more than got it.

“Were there prostitutes?”

“Never. I was with Rachel for most of my time there, I never cheated. I told you that. But Jameson is a bigot so I’m not surprised that she’d let me go for a bag of chips if someone told her I’d been with a guy. Whether they lied to her or she’s lying to the press, she’s not having anyone Nancying around on her team.” Danny pushed the notebook to Chin and put down the pen.

“So which ones were guys?” 

Danny knew Steve wouldn’t let up, and if it was out now, it might as well be all out. “One guy my freshman year in college, a couple of _dates_ when I first got there. And the on-again/off-again I mentioned that spanned two and a half years.” 

“Two and a half years?” Steve made a that-sounds-serious face. “Did you dump him to go pro?”

“Do you ever not think I’m a jerk? No. We broke up the last time before the draft. And we broke up because _he_ cheated. That was why the offs with him usually happened. And when I say off and on I mean mostly off. If you pulled all of the days were were together, you’d probably add up to three months, maybe four.” Danny pulled the Homesteaders’ press release over to read it. “I didn’t dump anyone to go pro. It was mostly a shock that I was drafted at all.”

“What’s your team going to say when they find out?” Steve asked as Chin pulled out a lap-top and the steward closed the plane door.

“They know.”

“ _They know?_ ”

“Yes, Steven, they know.” Danny put the pages back down as he wasn’t going to get to read them until Steve was finished asking questions.

“Toast is bi. One of the guys found out, I outed myself in solidarity. My team is okay with it. You seem to be the only one who knows and isn’t.”

“I’m completely fine with you being bisexual.”

Danny snorted. “Which is why you came screaming on to the plane yelling ‘You’re gay’ like you were leading a witch hunt?”

Chin snorted.

“You didn’t tell me the whole truth. Which reminds me, you need to call Fong; the Pacs will need to do a statement as well.” Steve slid Danny’s phone across the table to him.

Danny felt his body sigh as he pushed the send call button.

 

****

“I hate the beach!” Danny finagled his way down the stairs with his crutches. Miffed that the plane had landed in Hawaii.

“Who hates the beach?” Steve’s hands were high and wide, not understanding how Danny could possibly question his good fortune. “Nobody hates the beach.”

“No, untrue, I do. I hate the beach.” 

Steve rolled his eyes and started throwing luggage into the car that was waiting for them.

“So are we hiding at a five-star, or at a hole in the wall that even the cheap tourists won’t go to?” Danny finally managed the bottom of the stairs and turned his phone back on.

“Neither; we’ll be at my place. It’s the last place your stalker will suspect.” Steve gestured a ‘voila’ as though his genius plan should be applauded. 

Danny just hobbled to the car. “It better not be on the beach!”

The Portland Pacifics’ press release had been exactly what Danny had expected and appreciated. It denied that Danny had anything to do with prostitutes, it stated that the trade had been nothing but beneficial to them, and it discouraged comments about his sexuality as though it should be academic. It was the attitude that the front office had held since they found out, which he also appreciated.

By the time they landed in Honolulu, Kamekona and Flipper had been spotted by the press at a grocery store and asked what they thought of their wide receiver being gay. They’d apparently corrected the reporter that he was bi, and continued piling the carriage with shrimp.

Danny loved his team, and smiled as he climbed into the SUV. 

His agent was another matter. He’d spent a few minutes on the phone with Charlie, and then a half an hour on the phone with his agent. The man was nowhere near as cool with Danny not being ‘strictly straight’ as the Pacs were. Of course what impacted Danny’s career financially impacted Matt’s too. 

Danny had shut off his phone and pocketed it as soon as he hung up with his agent. He was tired and still reeling from his injury; still reeling from a psycho hurting his team; still reeling from some crazy freak threatening his daughter. He’d wanted to cry.

Steve had handed Danny his pain prescription bottle and some water. Danny had gratefully slept for the flight.

“Was that the plan?” Danny asked once the car was underway with Chin driving. “To make me unconscious for the flight so I couldn’t say _No, I don’t want to go to Hawaii_?”

Steve nodded from the front seat, clearly thinking the idea had some merit. “It did make for a peaceful flight.”

“Asshole.” Danny muttered.

Chin laughed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YOU ARE ALL AWESOME! Updates still coming, but I wanted to thank you all again!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the delay folks. I've caught up with what I had finished before I began posting, so the remaining chapters will post one per week.
> 
> And for those of you who've been waiting, *cough*Haldoor*cough*, this is where we get explicit.
> 
> AGAIN: Thanks to everyone who has been reading, you have made my year! Haldoor, Tkeyla, AsphaltGowGrrl, I could not do this without out!!

Danny exhaled. Deeply; rapidly. His heart rate finally calming back down. Sweaty and sated. He felt euphoric and stupid. But he liked the large, calloused hand on his chest. He liked the breath panting over his shoulder from the man next to him. He liked how tight and hot Steve had been; how incredible the sex had been. 

Danny was falling for his bodyguard. That was the stupid part.

 

****

 

They’d been in Hawaii for two days. The travel and drugs had messed with his sleep schedule enough; but the incessant noise from the ocean was going to make Danny crazy.

He pounded at his pillow on the couch. Steve had already come downstairs once to take the remote away from him. The infomercial had been the only thing that could drown out the surf, but apparently the walls in the house were too thin for Steve to not hear all about the offers from the Franklin Mint.

Danny groaned and tried to roll over into a position where he couldn’t hear the water _and_ where his knee didn’t complain too much. He’d nixed taking more of the pain killers. He never understood the joy of being high, and with a stalker somewhere out there it didn’t seem like a good option.

“You know,” an aggravated voice called down from upstairs. “I can hear still hear you thrashing around and whining!”

“Shut up,” Danny muttered with no intention of Steve hearing it.

Chin had left them alone at the house. Until word surfaced that Williams was in Hawaii, they felt relatively safe in Steve’s family home. Security had been doubled on the Edwards’ new household, and the Pacs’ security had increased as well with Danny’s absence. It was just Danny and Steve in the house while Chin had spent some time with his wife, and looked deeper into Danny’s ex-boyfriends.

Danny moved the pillow again and tried to roll to his back with a choice curse word or two.

“That’s it!” There was a loud sound of Steve’s feet hitting the floor with purpose. And then another “That’s it!” that might have been muffled by a shirt being pulled on, followed by a grown man thundering down the stairs in the little house. He was leaning over Danny when he spoke again. “You are going up to the spare bedroom, and you are taking your meds, and I am getting some GODDAMN SLEEP!”

Danny moved the blanket and peeked at Steve with one naysaying eye.

“If I have to carry you upstairs myself.” Steve finished through clenched teeth.

Taking a deep breath, Danny opted to act like a grownup. He moved the blankets and sat up. “I’m sorry.” He said. “I don’t like the meds, or the pain. I don’t like the beach, or being this far away from my daughter. I don’t like missing four weeks of practice. This is not where I’m supposed to be.”

Steve sighed and sat down on the coffee table. “Like I said - we never meet people on their best day. But you’re DL’d now; through no fault of your stalker. You need R and R. And you know that this is the best option for you.”

“I know.” And Danny did know. “I just… There is no relaxing right now. You know?”

Steve sighed again, watched Danny put a hand through his hair in exasperation. He turned his head to the side and mulled over an idea.

“I don’t like that.” Danny sat up a little straighter, pointing a finger at the look on Steve’s face. “I don’t-” And then Steve was there - right there - kissing him. Danny thought of pushing him away, of telling Steve no. He thought of it, and he let Steve push him back down on the couch.

Steve moved and stretched out on top of Danny. One hand on his neck, the other moving; stroking; caressing. And Steve kept kissing him.

“I got you.” Steve told him between lip locks. 

“You got me?” Danny smiled and pulled Steve’s face away slightly.

Steve eased to the side, trailing a hand over Danny’s chest and stomach until it was palming Danny’s dick through his sleep pants. “You’ve known where this was going, right?” Steve whispered, staring at Danny’s lips.

“Yeah.” Danny liked the feel of Steve’s body on his; Steve’s hands, his lips, and the way he stared at Danny’s mouth.

“Then I got you.” And Steve held still, just waiting.

“Yeah.” Danny moved his head up to meet Steve’s lips again. He let his own hands travel. One palm against Steve’s chest, measuring the speed of Steve’s heartbeat and the heat of his skin through a t-shirt. The other clutching at Steve’s right arm, guiding, pushing Steve’s hand under the waistband of Danny’s pajamas. He groaned when Steve’s fingers wrapped around him. “Yeah, you got me.”

Steve smiled into the next kiss; the thumb on Danny’s neck stroking tenderly, the hand on his cock stroking much more firmly. Danny let himself go with it, let Steve have control. He let his mind focus on heat and sensations. 

The tongue sucking on his. 

The erection rhythmically restless at his hip.

The fingers trying to tease an orgasm from him.

Danny let himself go with it. Minutes or hours or seconds later he shouted out with his release. Panting against Steve’s cheek. His fingers digging into Steve’s skin, probably bruising, definitely grateful. 

And then Steve tensed. Breath faltering, hips lurching. Danny pulled Steve into another kiss, and another, and another, until Steve evened out. 

When Steve pushed away for air Danny asked “Did you just come from pulling my pud?”

Steve wiped a hand on the leg of his shorts. “You’re a classy guy.”

Danny shrugged. “You’re easy.”

Nodding, Steve leaned in again, kissed Danny deeply. “You’re hot. Watching you fall apart from just my hand, that was hot.” Another kiss was followed by “Imagine what you’d be like with my tongue in your ass.”

Danny relaxed. He felt … serene? Calm? Melted, maybe. And not a little eager for the promise in Steve’s words. “You gonna have me then too?” The words sounded tired even to Danny’s ear.

“Oh, I’m gonna have you. Definitely.” Steve sat up, then stood trying to pull Danny with him. “Come on, D. Let’s go upstairs.” 

Danny let himself be manhandled a little while he made protesting noises.

“I want to sleep somewhere big enough for one of us to wake up with the other spooned to his back, fat cock trying to get in.” Steve’s fingers stroked across Danny’s shoulders.

“Which one of us is the big spoon?” 

“I don’t care.”

Danny limped up the stairs.

 

****

 

Danny was falling for his body guard. He ran a hand over his face, trying not to make noise and wake Steve as the man slept against him. He felt stupid. 

It had been no more than thirty hours since they went at it on the couch. Thirty hours of going at it like rabbits (or like rabbits on the disabled list). The sex was fun and hot. Steve was kind, impatient but still considerate. 

The moments that weren’t sex… well those were the moments that Danny felt his heart just about leave his body and make for Steve’s hands. The guy let Danny talk about Grace, got Kono to get his baby on the phone. He brought breakfast in bed. And he could talk football, he could really talk football.

Danny looked at Steve in the dim light. It was going to kill Danny to leave. To be bouncing back and forth between what had been the only two loves of his life, traveling from work in Portland to his daughter in Las Vegas to games wherever. To have Steve in Hawaii and a number of other places working where Danny wasn’t. 

He’d listened to Steve talk about his father’s murder, about tracking down the killer. He’d listened to the tale of the formation of Five-O. Danny got Steve, he didn’t think the man had always been in his right mind about things, he didn’t think the man was always correct in what he did. But he understood the drive, the need. Especially with his own stalker threatening his daughter. Danny got Steve.

And Danny felt in his bones (and other parts) that Steve got him. He was smart, funny, argumentative. Danny didn’t think that he’d ever thought he and Rachel had fit together as well as he and Steve did.

“You staring at my mouth again?” Steve mumbled without opening his eyes, jarring Danny out of his thoughts.

“After the thing you did with that mouth yesterday? In the backyard?” Danny joked, well, half joked.

“Liked that, huh?” Steve stretched pulled Danny a little tighter.

Danny was about to describe just how much he liked it when Steve’s phone rang. Steve reached over him, pushing his erection against Danny’s thigh, to get at his cell. Danny just moaned appreciatively.

“Hey, Chin?” Danny couldn’t hear Chin’s end of the conversation, but he did like the smile on Steve’s face when Danny pinched his ass. And then the smile was gone. The look in Steve’s eyes serious and boring into Danny’s. “Rick Peterson was thrown in jail for assault right after you got traded.” He looked like he was repeating Chin’s words. “Aggravated assault against an ex who had taken out a restraining order against him. Not his first ex with a TRO, not his first ex that he hospitalized.”

“Fuck.” Danny exhaled and closed his eyes against whatever look he was seeing on Steve’s face.

“Hasn’t reported to his P.O. in months. He’s in the wind, Danny.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again to everyone reading, commenting, beta reading!
> 
> Sorry for the delays.

“Tell us about him.” Steve put the tray of full coffee mugs on the table where Danny and Chin sat. 

Danny looked miserable. As though he hadn’t slept, for less than fun reasons, in days. Upstairs, while Steve had still been on the phone, Danny had put the pillow over his face and made a hurt noise. By the time Steve was out of the bathroom Danny had been sitting on the edge of the bed in his boxers, shaking his head, hands twitching as if in concert to the mental rant the man was giving himself.

“We must have broken up seven times. Maybe eight. He was never really…”

“Unhinged?” Chin supplied.

“Yeah.” Danny paused for a moment. “He would blame me when he cheated. He told me one time during a fight, that he had to be seen dating women, fucking women. So that no one would know he liked my dick. His words.”

“And you didn’t put up with that?” Chin asked watching Steve grit his teeth.

“I wasn’t asking him to be out. I never thought we were the real deal. But he wasn’t going out with the women for show anyway. I met one of them, she thought she was the only one he was dating. I walked in on him once when we went away for a weekend and…” Danny dropped his head to his hands and groaned.

“How did you meet?” Steve asked, finally sitting down.

Danny looked up and took a deep breath. “He was a beat cop. I had to go meet a couple of cops, detectives, and captains for different classes. Rick wasn’t one of the cops I was supposed to talk to, but he was eyeing me at the station, and then a couple of nights later he was at a bar right off campus. We talked for ages, headed out around closing and exchanged handjobs in his car. He was at the bar a week later and we left after an hour or so.”

“He take you back to his house?” Steve hedged.

“No, blowjob in an alley. Very romantic.” Danny’s laugh was self deprecating, but he did appreciate Chin’s chuckle. “I didn’t see him for a couple of months, then he was at the bar again, my roommate was gone for the weekend and …”

“How old was he?”

“Twenty-four. I was eighteen.”

“Impressionable.” Chin nodded.

“Very. After that he said we couldn’t meet in the bar. I got it. I don’t know that I’d want to be out on the police force. He’d arrange for us to meet at very out of the way motels.”

Steve seemed to struggle in asking “So, it was just physical?”

“Not completely. We talked a lot. We’d go see movies in out of the way theaters. It went through my mind sometimes that he was embarrassed to be seen with me, but then… I don’t know. It just seemed like that was what is was like back then for a cop who swung in a certain direction or in both directions. I think part of what made it so easy to break up with him was that it wasn’t a life I wanted when I graduated.”

“You said he cheated, why did you keep going back?” Steve moved a hand across the table, as if to reassure Danny and then thought better of it.

“Hindsight, you know?” Danny finally picked up his coffee and sipped. “It wasn’t an _adult_ relationship. He said things that now I know were abusive and controlling. But then, I thought he was the best I could do. That maybe I deserved him and all his issues.”

“Danny, you don’t-” Steve started, and then stopped at the glare he received.

“Yeah, Doctor Phil. I got that. Thanks. I’m not confused or a teenager anymore.”

“Did he ever hit you?” Chin brought the conversation back to what was topical.

“Never. Not even rough sex.”

“Did he ever contact you after you graduated?”

“No. Nothing. I figured we had both gone our separate ways.” Danny looked at Chin and then looked away as if recalling other things. “Just before I was traded, we were getting hangups. Rachel also said that there had been a few blocked ID calls where a man had asked for me and then hung up. It was the only thing she was glad to be getting away from when me moved to Portland. It could have been him, but I have no way of knowing.”

Steve and Chin shared a few silent but significant looks between them before Danny chimed in again. “So? What did you find on him?”

“He had a few excessive force complaints on his record. When I talked to his sergeant he said there had been rumors that they might have been ‘lifestyle choice’ related, but all that was ever written down was excessive force. Sergeant Pike said there had been a few domestic calls at his address that were swept away and apparently his girlfriend had a hard time getting a restraining order against him until he sent her to the emergency room.” Chin shook his head with some embarrassment for his brotherhood.

“He lost his job?”

“Eventually.” Chin looked at his tablet. “Disciplinary hearing, short suspension, until he went after her again. Then he was out. Worked security for a while. Then, just before you got traded, he beat the crap out of his boyfriend, who by all accounts was not a small guy. Apparently your ex had been going along fine and then he went off his track. Boyfriend said he was agitated and short tempered like he hadn’t seen before. Well, the boyfriend wrote it down as Peterson hit him hard enough that he had to have his jaw wired. He also broke ribs, concussion, and kept going until the cops broke in and pulled Peterson off him.”

“And for that he did time.” Danny stared at a point beyond Steve’s shoulder.

“Five years with good behavior.” Steve sneered. “And now missing. A warrant was issued for missing his parole meetings-”

“But that’s just an ‘if the cops recognize him on the streets’ thing, right?”

“Typically,” Chin acknowledged. “But they are stepping it up now, I still have favors to call in.”

“Thank you.” Danny took a deep breath, released it. And it felt like the first breath he’d been able to expel in hours.

“TSA has his picture. I don’t know where that will get us, though.” Steve moved his empty cup to the sink. “Chin, can you stay here?”

The man nodded. “I’ll talk to Malia, have her go stay with a friend. But I’m saying this before anything else happens.” A finger wagged between Steve and Danny. “The walls in this place are thin and I _DON’T_ want to hear what I know you two have been up to. Got it?”

Steve looked shocked. He nodded solemnly. Danny chuckled into his coffee.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is only one more chapter left and it should be posted within a week. Thank you all for sticking with me, it means so very much.
> 
> Thanks to AsphaltCowGrrl, Haldoor, and Tkeyla, you all make me look good!

Danny couldn’t have said for certain what had woken him. But he knew, for certain, that the chill going up his spine was not from the temperature.

 

It had been five days since they’d had the conversation about Rick. Since they presumed that it was Rick who had been stalking him. Chin had Detective Lukela check the partial prints they’d found at the stadium against Peterson’s prints and they looked to match, enough of a match to know their hunch was right. 

 

Steve had barely let Danny out of his sight. The assist in the shower was nice, but the hovering outside of the bathroom for other things was getting on Danny’s nerves. That and he’d had to creatively distract Steve from his pacing and staring out the windows. There were perks to being around a man that… driven, but there were definite negatives.

 

Danny knew for certain that whatever was giving him the creeps right then was not Steve staring.

 

“I can tell you’re not sleeping anymore. Rise and shine, Danny-boy.” 

 

 _Fuck._ Danny opened his eyes and looked straight into Rick Peterson’s face. 

 

He looked older, which Danny supposed he did as well. Rick also looked a little sallow. Sallow over desperate and a hint of out of his mind. 

 

Danny sat up. Rick smiled, gun held loosely in one hand, taser in the other. “Good morning, Baby. You do look delicious.”

 

Not bothering to adjust the blanket that was barely covering him, Danny got right to it. “What do you want, Rick?”

 

“Oh, Baby. I want you.” Rick spoke like he’d said it a million times, like Danny was dense for not understanding. “I’ve always wanted you.”

 

“Where’s Steve?”

 

Rick’s face changed sharply. From pleasing to pissed. “Your whore? Where’s your new fuck toy? He’s downstairs. Both your new little friends are downstairs.”

 

“Both?” _Shit!_ Danny figured he’d slept too soundly and that Rick had grabbed Steve, but he had held out hope that Chin hadn’t shown up yet.

 

“DON’T TALK TO ME LIKE I’M STUPID, DANNY! DON’T PRETEND YOU HAVEN’T BEEN GIVING IT UP TO BOTH OF THEM!” Rick pointed the taser at Danny’s chest as he took a deep breath. “I saw them at your house. I know.”

 

“I haven’t-” Danny wasn’t sure what good stalling would do, but he tried.

 

“You have a very sweet ass, Baby. And you give as good as you take. You’re irresistible. So don’t TELL ME… that they haven’t been sharing you. ‘Cause I know you’d love that too. Wouldn’t you, Baby? All that delicious cock?” Rick smiled again, and it was one of the scariest things Danny had ever seen.

 

“What are you doing, Rick?”

 

“What’s the plan? Is that what you’re asking?” Rick kept smiling. “You’re going to pay me back, for all the trouble you’ve caused me. For the perfect life you have that you took away from me. This,” Rick waved his occupied hands for a moment, gesturing to the room, then the bed, then Danny himself. “should have all been mine. You should have been mine.”

 

“Rick,-”

 

“DON’T, D! YOU TOOK IT ALL AWAY!”

 

Danny heard a thump from downstairs.

 

Rick heard it too.

 

“Time to get up, Baby. Put on your shorts and let’s go downstairs.” Rick stepped back from the bed and gestured to where the pile of clothes from the previous night’s _OFF NOW_ had left them. “You try anything, anything at all, and I’ll kill you, then go kill them, and leave. No fuss, no muss.

 

Danny dressed in his boxers and t-shirt and moved out of the bedroom as directed. From the top of the stairs he could see both Steve and Chin on the floor of Steve’s living room. Ziptied at the wrist and ankles then looped together, hogtied with duct tape over their mouths. Chin’s eyes were open and his head was craning to see them. Steve wasn’t moving at all. Danny started down the stairs.

 

“Slowly, Baby. I’m happy to kill them if I need to.”

 

“You’re going to kill them anyway, aren’t you?” Danny stopped halfway to the living room.

 

Rick’s smile got impossibly creepier. “They’re going to die, but it doesn’t have to be quick. You do what I say, and … I can be grateful. Just like I remember you being so grateful. Remember that first time, Baby? You were so grateful.”

 

“Rick, whatever you want me to do, I’ll do it. Just let them go. You and me, we’ll walk away right now. We can get in a car, get on a plane, go where ever you want to go. Just us.” Danny’s voice waivered as he pleaded.

 

“Baby, I’m not that stupid. We wouldn’t get off the island. And you’re not really dressed for traveling.” Rick gestured down the stairs again and they both started moving.

 

Before… before the scary wake up, or the shooting at the stadium, or the break in at Rachel and Stan’s, before… If Danny had been asked about Rick, he would not have thought the man as over the edge as he clearly was. Even with the gun pointed at him, Danny was having a hard time reconciling the mental picture he had of his ex, with the crazed man standing behind him. Rick had never hit him, had never been outwardly jealous. He was controlling and demeaning, but Danny had always chalked that up to fear of being outed and not signs of an imminent psychotic break. 

“What do you want me to do, Rick? I’ll do whatever you want me to do,” Danny pleaded again.

 

“Whatever I want?’

 

“Anything.” Danny ignored the pointed look Chin was trying to give him. He could read _no_ in the gagged man’s eyes; he had no choice but to ignore it.

 

“I like the sound of anything. I don’t trust it, but I like the way it sounds.”

 

“Rick, whatever you want,” Danny promised. 

 

“If I want you to drop to your knees and suck me off, right here in front of both of them? You’d do that for me, Baby?”

 

Danny knelt quickly and without a second thought.

 

“Awww, Baby, you always did give great head. And I really want to fuck your mouth, but …” Rick looked to where Steve was. “The big one is still out from the taser, and I’d rather bend you over and and sink my cock into your ass while he can watch. I’d like that. Yeah, watching them watch us.” 

 

Rick looked Danny up and down. Danny had never felt dirtier in his life. But he was grateful that Rick’s attention was on him and not on the deep breath that Steve was taking. Danny would leave it to Steve and Chin to figure out a plan while he stalled.

 

“You ruined my life, you know. So I won’t be nice. You have to be punished. You have to watch them in pain while I fuck you dry. And you’ll beg me. You’ll beg me to fuck you harder. You’re going to taser them each in the balls and then I’m going to fuck you hard while they seize on the floor. Maybe a couple of hits to the chest with a bat for them before I come on your face. It’s up to you how nice I am to them. Maybe I’ll just kill them both now.”

 

“Why are you doing this?” Danny yelled, snagging all of Rick’s attention back to him. “I didn’t do anything to you. Why-”

 

“YOU LEFT ME!” Rick backhanded Danny with his taser hand, gun hand pointing at the men on the floor. “YOU LEFT ME! AND THEN YOU LEFT ME AGAIN!” Rick stepped away and took another breath. “You dumped me like you always did when I fucked around. I understood that, I got that you wanted to be the only toy I had, but then you didn’t come back, and you left for Iowa! Iowa! What the fuck is in IOWA?”

 

“Rick-”

 

“AND THEN YOU MARRIED SOME BITCH! A woman! You didn’t come back to me, for a chance to play football in IOWA AND A WOMAN!” Rick turned away, then turned back quickly. “Do you know how much that hurt me? No! You never saw what you did to me! You turned your back and found a nice little life. Career, wife, and a cute little house. So I got you fired. I told that bitch owner that you like guys, that you were so good at sucking cock you could do it professionally, and she just traded you.”

 

Danny watched Steve twitch on the floor, couldn’t see his face, but watched Chin’s head shake at Steve.

 

“I went out of my way to get you back! To prove that you should be with me, be mine, and you just moved further away! You packed up your whore wife and moved west like you didn’t even give me a thought. You should have loved me enough to come back. But you didn’t, did you? No you went and knocked the bitch up. I did all that for you and you just didn’t care about my sacrifices. Sacrifices I made for US.” 

 

“Rick-”

 

“No, D! No, I had to come find you in Portland. I had to punish that bitch. You were just a wallet for her until a bigger wallet came along, but she was taking away your baby. Our baby. Grace should have been our baby. But you still weren’t coming back to me. I made it easy for you to leave your team, for you to come back to me, and then you came here with them. Oh, look who’s awake.”

 

Danny cringed. There was no way this was going to end well, there was no way someone wasn’t going to die. Danny just hoped that it was Rick or him.

 

“So here’s what we’re going to do, Baby. You’re going to stand up, and take the tall one’s gun out of the side table where it’s hidden.” When Danny hesitated, Rick yelled, “DO IT!”

 

Danny stood up and grabbed the gun as he was told. He knew it was loaded, Steve wouldn’t leave an unloaded gun loose, it was there for protection. And Danny weirdly thought that Steve would have to change that if Grace were going to be around. 

 

“Safety off.” Rick watched closely as Danny did it. “Now here’s my deal, Baby. My punishment for not coming back to me, for making me come after you so many times. You kill them both. You can kill them quick and easy. You do that, Baby, you do that for me. You don’t do that, and I’ll kill them slow. A couple of gut shots that they could live through if they got to call for help, but they won’t. You don’t shoot them, and I’ll make you watch while they bleed out. Both your pretty little toys, all helpless and drowning in their own blood.”

 

“Rick-”

 

“No. Point the gun that way, or I’ll shoot you too.” Rick stepped further back so if Danny turned the gun his way it would be obvious. “A couple of quick bullets to the brain and they are free, D. You get to be the hero, you get to save them from a long, painful death.” 

 

Danny’s brain screamed. All four of them were going to die there in Steve’s living room. The only good thing he held on to was that Grace wasn’t there. That Grace was safe in Nevada. He knew, without an ounce of doubt that Rick would turn the gun on himself after Steve, Chin and Danny were all dead. But Grace would never see it. 

 

Steve turned his head finally, stretching to look Danny in the eye. Like he was giving Danny permission to shoot him. Like it would be fine in Steve’s mind if Danny did what Rick was forcing on them. Danny tried to convey back _Are you kidding me? You crazy crazy idiot! I can’t kill you!_ “Rick, I can’t… This is… You and me, we can just go somewhere. We can hide, we can get away, just us. But I can’t…”

 

“Oh, Baby. I do like it when you beg. And I like the idea of hiding out with you. Getting away somewhere. Leaving these two to know that they couldn’t keep us apart. Letting them know that I get to keep you.”

 

“We can do that, Rick. This doesn’t have to-” Danny left the gun pointing toward Steve but turned his head to look Rick in the eyes while he implored.

 

“YES IT DOES!” Rick moved closer. “Baby. D. You have to be punished. If I let them go, if I don’t punish you. You might leave me again. I need you, Baby. I can’t let you go again.” Rick shook his head, making his point. “So this is it, Baby. You kill them or I do. It punishes you. You kill them. Or I kill them. You decide, Baby. You decide your punishment.”

 

Danny couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe. They were all going to die, there was no win. It … _Fuck!_

 

Danny felt tears falling down his face, felt impotent, felt his hand tighten around the gun. 

 

He fired once. 

 

Then again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I SWEAR I will get the last chapter posted ASAP!


	11. Chapter 11

“What I am saying, Max, is that if he calls me _Baby_ one more time, I’m going to pick him up and bodily throw him from the booth.” Danny gestured wildly into the booth that was set up for the Monday night football broadcast, and the asshole smirking at him.

“I do understand what you are saying Mister Williams, and I respect that it is a derogatory and demeaning term, but it is my understanding that this sort of male bonding situation is full of insults and goading.” Max was clueless and … Max.

The guy was a hell of a producer. Danny liked and respected him. The NCC show was as highly rated as it was in no small part thanks to Max. But Max could not control the talent, including Danny and his co-anchor.

Max turned away and spoke into his headset that someone should speak to Beckett’s manager. Danny turned toward Beckett himself. “You call me Baby on the air one more time, and I will live broadcast about your wife and your girlfriend _and_ I’ll punch you in the face.”

Beckett laughed, thinking Danny was bluffing. “And if I say it off air? What’re you gonna do then, Baby?”

Danny punched him in the stomach and headed off to his dressing area.

Steve chuckled, patted Beckett on the back as he walked by him to follow Danny. “You should feel lucky, man. The last guy I saw call him that got a bullet through his forehead.”

 

****

 

Danny shook as he stood there. Gun hot in his hand. Rick dropped on the floor, blood seeping from his skull. One other bullet hole in the floor just beyond Steve’s head. 

He had needed to distract Rick, get him to look away from Danny, The man looked to where the bullet was supposed to be, looked to Steve, and in that second, Danny had been able to aim and kill Rick.

Kneeling on the floor - and Danny couldn’t say when that had happened - he rethought and rethought. Maybe he could have wounded Rick; maybe they all could have lived. But if he hadn’t killed the man, the man would still be a threat to the two men bound on the floor. 

Danny had no idea how long he’d been staring at Rick’s body, how long he’d just been unaware of Steve and Chin, but when he finally looked away, there were people in the room. There was a hand checking for a pulse on Rick’s neck. There were people cutting at the bindings on Chin and Steve, and there was an older man, a cop, suggesting that Danny let go of the gun.

The whole day was mostly a blur. Danny’d been printed and processed. He’d been questioned. He’d been handed orange scrubs and told to take off his boxers and t-shirt. He’d talked to several different detectives. Told his story over and over again. What Rick had been like when they’d met, why they broke up, what he’d threatened in Steve’s house. He’d even had a video conference with Detective Lukela in Portland. 

It was evening, maybe, or maybe he’d been in the interrogation room for days, when a lawyer came in. The man brought in a change of clothes, said he’d been retained on his behalf by the Pacs. Told Danny that the D.A. wasn’t filing charges then, but that he needed to stay on the island for a few days until all the evidence could be processed. Told Danny that everything he’d told the police had matched up with Steve and Chin’s stories. He was free to go, just stay local for a few days.

Danny had no idea where he was free to go to, he didn’t have his wallet or …

As he stepped out of the interrogation room, Danny found himself engulfed in warm, tattooed arms. “You okay?” Danny just nodded against Steve’s chest. “You had us worried there.”

“Ha!” Danny barked as he pulled away. “I wasn’t bound and unconscious on the floor.”

“No, but...” Chin shook his head next to Steve. “We didn’t kill a guy and just sit there leaving our friends tied up till the cops came.” Chin chuckled; his words had no blame, just a memory of worry.

“Jeeze.” Danny ran his hands over his face. “Did the neighbors hear the shots? Shit! I’m sorry, I just-”

Steve pulled him back in. “Kono had been trying to call Chin for an hour. Couldn’t get me either. She called Mamo. Cops were there before the neighbors called. It was two minutes. Tops.” Steve stepped back, slightly, brushed a hand over a smudge on Danny’s neck. “You just… you kind of…”

“Crumbled.” Chin filled in where Steve couldn’t.

“I killed someone.”

“All four of us would be dead, D.” Steve looked Danny straight in the eye. “We all know he was going to kill all of us and then himself. You didn’t have a choice, and you saved three people.”

“If I had wounded-”

“Danny,” Chin’s tone was stern, for Chin. “Anything less, and he would have kept coming. He was obsessed, and very obviously out of his mind. I mean, he wanted you.” Chin winked.

Danny laughed, and Steve blustered, pretending to take offense.

They were walking out of HPD when Steve handed Danny his wallet. “So this is the part where you finally put us up in a plush hotel room for a couple of days.”

“I’m going to grab Malia, then we’ll meet you at the Hilton.” Chin headed off in one direction while Steve pulled Danny in another.

“I don’t know if I’m up to-”

“Malia is a doctor. Let her look you over, you crunched a bit when you hit the floor after the gunshots. We can have food sent up to the room.”

 

****

 

Danny rubbed his hands together in front of the dressing mirror. Replaying Rick’s death and the events that followed. 

Rachel had been surprisingly nice. She’d flown back to Portland when Danny did and let Grace spend his last week on the DL with him. With him and Steve. 

Steve had stuck around for a long while. He’d run his agency via phone and internet, let Chin handle the in-person things that needed to be done, and hadn’t left Danny’s side except for away games for months.

Danny looked at the room he was in, the lights, the TV personnel, the stadium outside the windows. It had been over four years ago that he’d first met Steve, and he felt like Steve had been taking care of him ever since.

Of course he took care of Steve too. The man had a habit of coming home from his assignments bruised and battered. _Home._ Danny liked that Steve kept coming home to him, regardless of the arguments they got into about Steve’s maniac mission mentality. And sometimes Danny enjoyed the arguments too.

The whole event with Rick had outed Danny, but the Pacs had been there for him. For him and Steve. Both the corporation and the individuals. And Amy adored Steve. 

They’d made it to the playoffs that year.

The Pacs worked hard, worked well, were a team on and off the field. Ohana, Meka kept saying. And Danny felt on top of the world. He had his daughter, a great team, and Steve. 

The next year they made it to the Superbowl. They didn’t win, but they got to the show again. The dick commentator for NCC who’d said Danny’s trade had been for a bag of chips and odor eaters made another comment. A couple of comments, about how Danny was a wide receiver in every sense of the term, about how a team full of fags and fag lovers would never win the Superbowl. 

Danny smiled widely when the guy had been forced to apologize and resign. Danny smiled a lot about it.

And the Pacs made it to the big game again, with only one loss for the season. Danny made a spectacular catch in the endzone a fraction of a second before the opposing team had made a stellar tackle and Danny’s knee was blown out for good. But the Pacs were world champions. Meka was quoted about going to Disneyland, Danny was quoted with an _in your face_ to NCC’s former commentator.

NCC promptly hired Danny. He’d started out as part of the post-show panel, and when he’d officially moved to Hawaii with Steve, a local channel there had hired him as well for the off-season. He’d ended up filling in on a Honolulu morning program, and then NCC had asked him to step up to the booth for broadcast commentary. 

It was a whirlwind four years. It struck Danny as odd that he never thought he’d play professional football, let alone make it to the Superbowl. It would have been insane to think that he’d still have a job anywhere near football after a career-ending injury. And a message had just come in from Matt that a nationally syndicated morning show wanted him to fill in for a day while he was in New York.

Danny felt hands on his shoulder and looked up to meet Steve’s eyes in the mirror. “I thought you were working tonight?”

“Chin and Kono have it. I can be here instead.” Steve smiled.

Danny laughed. “They kicked you out ‘cause you’d be watching the show and not the client?”

“You are distracting, and hot, and when they show you, with these shoulders…” He winked in the mirror.

“And you wanted to be here in case I pummel Beckett tonight?” Danny turned to face him.

“Like someone else is going to be able to pull you off him.” Steve leaned forward and kissed Danny for all he was worth. 

Somewhere behind them Beckett made gagging noises.

 

****

 

_“-coming to you live from Giant’s Stadium. I’m Ray Beckett, and I’m here with Danny Williams. We’re in for a great game tonight. Don’t you think so, Baby?”_

_“Really, Ray? That’s how you want to start the broadcast? I’ve asked you not to call me that, Corporate has asked you not to call me that, and your manager has told you to stop. So knock it off and let’s focus on the Giants and the Homesteaders.”_

_”Oh come on now, Baby. You know you lov-”_

The crunch sound of Danny Williams' fist hitting Ray Beckett’s nose on the live broadcast was played by sports jocks around the country for weeks. 

_“Max, get someone up here to cover for Ray. And then find someone to cover for me so I can turn myself in. Listen up kids, violence is never the answer. Max, get me signed up for anger management classes too. And Steven, stop laughing!”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gala - Thank you so much for all of your patience. I am horrified that it took me two and a half years to get this done for you. I hope you've enjoyed it.
> 
> Thanks are again due to Haldoor, Asphaltcowgrrl, and Tkeyla. You all make me look good. Any remaining errors are because I am stubborn or changed things after they went through it.
> 
> Lastly - Thank you to all of you who have read through this. I cannot begin to tell you the joy I got from being called evil after posting chapter 10. I felt so wonderful. Which is a strange thing to enjoy being called evil, but it was really wonderful. Thank you all so very much for sticking with it for so long!


End file.
